5 Synagogues in Homel Confiscated; Move Part of Anti-holiday Campaign

September 29, 1929

Moscow (Sep. 27)

The city hall of Homel will from now on be housed in one of the five synagogues in the city closed today. The other four will be converted into public kitchens and dormitories. This is the first time that five synagogues in one city have been closed simultaneously.

The move is part of the anti-holiday campaign being carried on by the Jewish Communists for the purpose of Hampering worship.

Orthodox elements are counteracting the Communists’ activity by renting barns and preparing them as places in which to worship.

Synagogues are reported closed in Poltava, Fastov, Zolotnosha, Piriatin and other Ukrainian cities.

A bitter fight broke out again in Leningrad this week, regarding the Great Synagogue there, which the Jew- (Continued on Page 2)

ish Communists have been trying for the past two years to convert into a club. The central government is opposed to any conversions of synagogues in Moscow or Leningrad.

That religious Jews abroad are helping to prepare a war against Soviet Russia is asserted in instructions issued today by the central Jewish anti-religious campaign committee to its propaganda organizers. The instructions declare: “The nasty rumors about the Soviet persecution of the Jewish religion which are being spread by the Jewish clergy and the proclamations of days of fast in this connection are encouraging a war atmosphere against the Soviet.”